The Viceroy, after reading the King's letter noticed above, praising
the Princes for their aid in war and in the famine, and promising—rather vaguely—a reduction of taxation, con- cluded his fine speech by a hearty expression of his belief that all Indian problems are capable of solution if only the supremacy of the paramount Power remains " unchallenged," and with a prayer that the present reign may last in " security and beneficence." We all join in that prayer, and feel something of that faith, even though it is tinged in places with reflective doubt. The Princes, as a very recent experience has proved to Lord Curzon, need restraint as well as encouragement; and as to the masses, neither King Edward nor his Viceroy can even touch the greatest of their problems, the enormous multiplication of their numbers, which our rule seems to foster. Even India cannot support many tens of millions more.
